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Tuesday, 22 January 2013

BANNED PARTY ATTACKS ‘OBSERVER’ BOSS

Banned political
party criticizes State newspaper group executive

Media Institute of
Southern Africa, Swaziland

Statement

21 January 2013

The Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), a banned
political party in the kingdom of Swaziland, has spoken out against the
managing director of the state-owned Swazi
Observer Newspaper Group, Alpheous Nxumalo, for suppressing diverse views
and violating the Constitution.

In a letter published by the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only privately-owned newspaper,
party leader Dr Alvit T. Dlamini pointed out that Swaziland’s Constitution has
a Bill of Rights which protects freedom of speech and assembly.

Dlamini was responding to a recent column written by
Nxumalo in which he vowed not to allow pro-democracy voices to be published in
state-owned media. In the same breath, Nxumalo accused the media and
non-governmental organisations of undermining the stability and prestige of the
monarchy.

The column appeared in the Swazi Observer of Friday, 11 January 2013.

Wrote Nxumalo, in part: “It is absolutely true that most
of the so-called democracy activists find it ‘democratic’ to insult the heads
of state and government in the media as a strategy of democratising Swaziland.
It is preposterous and fallacious….I will not submit to a mandate in
contradiction with the mandate of the Swazi monarchy and its subsidiary
institutions.”

Responding to this in the letter, Dr Dlamini said
“Nxumalo must know that there is supposedly a Constitution that has a Bill of
Rights, which speaks about freedom of speech…the very freedom he exercised when
writing his article. This freedom is supposedly for all Swazis and not just for
him alone.”

He added: “Unless Nxumalo can prove the allegations he is
making, he must apologise to the nation for attempting to subvert the
provisions of the Constitution, which is a grave offence.”

The Swaziland chapter of the Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA)-Swaziland has also asked Nxumalo to clarify his claims and to
name the people and organisations he accuses in his article. Neither an
explanation, nor an apology, has been forthcoming from him.

The NNLC also said it is “particularly troubled” by
Nxumalo’s invocation of the former apartheid South Africa president, F.W de
Klerk. In his column, Nxumalo wrote that he agreed with de Klerk’s
analysis that “all revolutionary forces sought to overthrow incumbent
governments by mobilising the masses, by making countries ungovernable, by
fomenting strikes, by involving churches, trade unions and civil society in
their campaigns, by using propaganda to destroy the image and undermine the
confidence of governments; by eliminating opposition through the use of
terrorism and intimidation and by applying underhand and dirty political
tactics to distract their perceived enemies”.

Said Dlamini in response to the above: “Those words were
said by de Klerk when he was defending Apartheid, which the whole world had
declared a crime against humanity”.

King Mswati III, Sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarchy, has ruled Swaziland since 1986. His regime has fervently resisted
efforts towards democratisation and although the country’s constitution guarantees
freedom of expression and assembly, political parties are banned and mass
action is often met with violence.

MISA-Swaziland has since written a letter to
the chairperson of the Swazi Observer
Newspaper Group, S’thofeni Ginindza, to register its concerns with Nxumalo’s
column and allegations contained therein.